The European Commission’s UrbanWater project, in which Scottish Water is a partner, has launched a survey aimed at gathering data from a range of stakeholders as part of its work to develop and demonstrate an innovative ICT- based platform for efficient and integrated management of urban water resources. 

Last month Scottish Water hosted a two-day meeting in Edinburgh to review the initial achievements of the project, which will run for two and a half years.

The UrbanWater platform will incorporate:

· water availability estimations based on weather prediction and surface water reserves (e.g. reservoirs) data

· demand estimations based on household consumption data and consumption patterns and models

· water distribution network data, including leakage detection

· automatic billing capabilities including adaptative pricing

· customer engagement tools

· advanced metering solutions providing real-time consumption data

· secure and cloud-based data management

· decision support systems combining the information gathered and generated by the above modules

The project wants to obtain a wide range of stakeholder views, including consumers, but is particularly keen to get responses from those working for water utilities/companies, public authorities or software providers. The survey incorporates a different set of questions for each stakeholder group.

Last month Scottish Water hosted a two-day meeting in Edinburgh to review the initial achievements of the project, which will run for two and a half years.

Once established, the platform will remain open in order to foster the creation of new modules by third parties and to ensure interoperability with energy and water management schemes and further enhance collaboration between key partners from outside the project consortium.

The project will integrate high quality and already proven solutions for data management and billing systems, with innovative models for forecasting water supply availability, predicting customers’ demand and detecting leakages. It will also develop spatial tools based on strong know- how from previous developments in the field of supporting distributors and authorities in decision-making.

Deadline for responses to the UrbanWater Project, which is a FP7 ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) project co-funded by the European Commission, Friday 3rd May.

Click here for the survey questionnaire (English version)